Terry Ng of Kineda has put together one of the best list of essential tools for every blogger (especially professional bloggers).

You’ve started your blog and you’re up and running, but do you have the essential tools necessary to be a blogging pro? Here’s a list of tools I personally use that will improve your blogging experience and productivity. Being well equipped will make you a better blogger, and being a better blogger means gaining the respect and affection among your weird and fuzzy blogging peers and readers.

This is a must read resource for any new upstart blogger.

Originally posted on January 22, 2007 @ 7:06 pm

I personally want to do some analysis on the end of Performancing.

First off service based industries are a hard niche to go into. Serving the blogosphere is extremely difficult. You have teams of people publishers who at times can be high demand, and your returns are often not very great as a service provider. With that in mind you have to really reach out and calm the storms. Being a huge diplomatic person is the only way you can have success as the service provider.

Being somewhat upfront and out there can really be difficult. Causing controversy can also be a huge issue. Not everyone will like you. Not everyone liked Nick Wilson, but Nick is a smart enough guy who has had successes and will move on to greener pastures with his new projects I’m sure.

I wish all the guys at Performancing luck in the future.

Originally posted on January 23, 2007 @ 4:31 am

With the release of WordPress 2.1 I have some concerns.

The ever blurring lines between the WordPress.org and Automattic community continue to blur as Automattic has taken pretty much full control of the WordPress releases rather than the greater community IMO.

While I’m plenty happy with the release products I’m a bit worried that the Akismet plugin which I use comes fully loaded with every release. Are we relying on one company for our support and basically holding ourselves hostage to the will of Automattic? Now that we’ve started seeing Google, Wikipedia, and others seemingly wielding power against the blogosphere we have to consider our options towards relying more on open source tools and communities and less on companies.

While I’m fully certain Automattic will be on the up and up. I think the blogosphere should start looking out for itself. We should begin work on an open source spam blocking plugin as effective as Akismet.

Source: WordPress Development Community

Originally posted on January 22, 2007 @ 6:38 pm

YouTube has produced a few record deals this year. One particular deal of note involves Terra Naomi. American Idol this season has been mired in Paula Abdul being a total alcoholic and Simon continuing down the path of being the world’s greatest ass.

YouTube is going to kick out a few really big stars. Most notably will surely be Mia Rose. She has star written all over her. By far she has more talent than Britney Spears, and Hilary Duff combined. And she really seems like a real person. And not fake. One of the things I’ve appreciated about Terra Naomi.

A record label better jump in and scoop up Mia Rose soon. She’s YouTube’s next diva.

• Check Out Mia Rose on YouTube
• Check Out Her Website

Originally posted on January 20, 2007 @ 10:16 am